Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Say Again

The English language continues to amuse me. It is no wonder that my native tongue is the most difficult language in the world to learn. The MOST difficult language to learn – which is really saying something when you think of those tribes in Africa who somehow communicate with clicks, spits, clucks, and a few hard swallows thrown in for emphasis.

My latest amusement centers around the fact that if you say something twice, you completely change the meaning of the word or phrase. And miraculously, everyone understands what you mean. Some examples:

Ernie’s shirt was blue, but it wasn’t blue blue.

I like Joel, but I don’t like him like him.

Tom is a slut, and I mean a slut slut.

Gauge anyone’s reaction to this turn of phrase and you get the same effect: “Oh, ok” accompanied with an acknowledging nod and sometimes a sly grin.

When was this taught to us? I don’t remember reading anything about it in the Little Brown Handbook in Mrs. Kelly’s 8th grade English class. We learned the parts of speech, the parts of a sentence, how to write a 5-paragraph essay, how to diagram sentences (I think Dorothy Zbornak and I are the only two people in the word who think that is fun. And sadly, Dorothy isn’t real). But I don’t ever remember being taught this or even told to do it. It just suddenly made sense whenever someone said it.